Recently arrived to Paris - while Eisenstein attended cultural and political meetings and was preparing his conference at the Sorbonne - Alexandrov met the Russian singer Mara Griy, a Parisian jeweller's wife. Her husband was willing to finance the production of a short film depicting his wife's voice. The project interested Alexandrov, who managed to get Eisenstein's enthusiasm to the idea. Eisenstein saw an opportunity to experiment sound in cinema, a matter that had been concerning him.